Oven Hot Dogs

Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I love hot dogs. I mean, I really love hot dogs. I think that’s probably because of oven hot dogs.

I know, they sound crazy. And you have to eat them with a fork and knife. But I promise oven hot dogs are absolutely delicious. My dad made these for us, and I think his mom started the trend when he was a kid. And they aren’t only delicious out of nostalgia–my husband loves them, and my brother told me his wife requests oven hot dogs every time they’re lost for what to eat.

Because this is a family recipe, I took step-by-step photos. Hopefully my dad will comment telling me what I did wrong because mine still never taste as good as his! It’s funny how that always happens, right?

Add the hot dogs and squish them together in a baking dish. Normally there would be one more, but, um… I ate it before it made it to the pan…
A 9×13″ pan is perfect for eight hot dogs! We like ’em really packed in there.

Add a bit of mustard if that’s your thing.

Now add sweet relish! But I think I messed up–I think the sweet relish is better when put at the bottom of the bun with the mayonnaise.
Edit: My sister, who claims to have “perfected the OHDs,” says I didn’t use enough relish! And, actually, I didn’t–but that was all I had left in the jar.
Edit 2: A few comments have complained that the relish was overwhelming, so proceed with caution! I love sweet relish, but if you don’t you might want to use less or switch to dill.

Top with chili! Just cold chili straight from the can.
I really dislike beans and have tried chili without beans, but that just doesnt’ taste right for oven hot dogs.
Second edit: Victoria again said that I need more chili and need to be messier. The hot dogs should barely be able to handle all the stuff you put on top and should be falling apart when they come out of the oven! My perfectionist tendencies get in the way of that, so please get a bit crazier.

Top with grated cheddar.

Dice your onions. My dad always made a few without onions for kids, but when he finally convinced me to try them with onions I realized that’s the way to go.

Throw on the onions

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

And now you’re done! The top with be crispy, which is why you need a fork and knife. Delicious.

These are amazing. I took your advise and loaded them up. They came out where some of the bun was crisp with a chewy center. Some of the bun was soft. I think it was just outside from being soggy but not. If that made a bit of sense. Knowing it had the potential, I made sure there was plenty of mayo barrier to help with that. ;) (personally I don’t mind a bit of sogginess that comes from great ingredients.) I used my own homemade sweet relish, homemade chili, larger buns made for brawts, and a spicy mustard. It was a great dish and I’m looking forward to leftovers. ;)

I have made these several times now. They are great as leftovers too. I LOVE them. There is something magical that happens when the mayo and relish combine. Creamy and sweet with the spicy chili and mustard! When my kids want hot dogs, getting the ingredients out for this is done immediately. My favorite way to eat hotdogs now.

Do your same routine in making these hot dogs but top them off with bacon!!! Delicious!!! You can either put it on top with the cheese and onions or place some bacon after you’ve placed the Weiner!!! AMAZING! The bacon gives it a crispy texture?! Try it!!

being from the cincinnati area, i HAD to do this using cincy style chili with a ton of finely shredded cheddar. ‘cheese conies on crack’ is now a regular in rotation. the only problem is that it’s ruined me for regular cheese conies from skyline or gold star.

I was looking for an easy Hot Dog Casserole recipe and found yours. Thank You!

I made a couple of changes to recreate more of the flavour of my childhood favourite bacon and cheese footlongs topped with a “special sauce” (basically an old fashioned sweet tomato chili sauce mixed with sweet green relish). I wanted to create a cross between that recipe and Coney Dogs.

I buttered the buns with a mix of mayo and mustard. The dogs came next, followed by 2 parts Homemade Beef & Bean Chili, smashed and mixed with 1 part my Nana’s Sweet Old Fashioned Chili Sauce. Chopped cooked bacon (about 1 cup leftover from another recipe) and diced onions were next. Lots of shredded cheddar followed.

My glass baking dish was lined with parchment paper and covered with foil.